Birds of Pennsylvania. 131 



chards by the Yellow-bellied Woodpecker (S. variiis)\ and Dr. Hoy, 

 of Racine, Wis., has advanced the theory that the object of the bird 

 in so doing is to obtain the inner bark for food. A number of speci- 

 mens of this bird, forwarded by Dr. Hoy to the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion, have been placed in my hands by Professor Baird for examina- 

 tion : as the specimens are alcoholic, the soft jjarts are, as is always 

 the case, too much distorted to be available for correct comparisons ; 

 the gizzard, however, seems smaller, and the pro\entriculus larger, 

 than in other species of this family with which I have compared them. 

 The contents of the stomach are berries, small coleopters, larvae of 

 boring beetles, ants, and fragments of the inner bark of the apple 

 tree.' 



" After giving minute analyses of the characteristics of the tongues 

 and portions of the skulls of the different small Woodpeckers, and 

 comparing them with the Yellow-bellied Woodpecker's, showing how 

 the latter differ from the others, he says : 



•'The general shape of the whole tongue is not much unlike that of 

 the Robin ; the ciliated edges show an analogy to the Meliphagidce^ 

 and indicate that the sap of the trees pecked by them may form a 

 portion of their food. In the stomachs of the six individuals exam- 

 ined by me, fragments of the inner bark were found in all, so 

 that it can hardly be presumed to have been accidentally intro- 

 duced. It is evident, from the shape of the tongue, that it is not used 

 as a dart, in the manner of the true Woodpecker, to draw out insects 

 from their lurking-places, but that these are seized by the bill, as in 

 other insectivorous birds. Insects, however, probably form their chief 

 diet, as all the stomachs examined also contained insects, the quan- 

 tity of which was greater than that of the fragments of bark : in one 

 bird, there were two larvi© of a boring beetle, so large that there 

 was not room for both in the stomach at once, and one remained in 

 the lower part of the oesophagus. If these were, as is probable, the 

 larvte of the Saperda^ they would do more damage than twenty Wood- 

 peckers ; and I sincerely hope that these birds are not to be extermi- 

 nated, unless it is clearly demonstrated that the injury caused by the 

 destruction of the bark is not more than compensated by their de- 

 struction of noxious insects." — From E. A. Samuels' Northern and 

 Eastern Birds. 



Gentry says : '' The food of these birds is less of an insect character 

 than that of an}^ other of the Picarian family. Although a great de- 

 stroyer of insects in their most destructive stages, yet the untold mis- 

 chief which they achieve in the perforation of the inner bark of many 

 trees to such an extent as to kill them, fairly outbalances the immense 

 good which they accomplish. In some parts of Wisconsin, this de- 

 struction is perpetrated on a grand scale. In 1868, Dr. Brewer, in com- 



